Breaking the Overton Window -- s1e02 -- 2023-October-16

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Welcome to our second episode of Breaking the Overton Window.  I am your host, Hugh Esco.  If ever there were a window worthy of breaking, it is the narrow scope of acceptable discourse related to the Zionist Occupation of Palestine.  This seems to be the final frontier of publicly accepted racist diatribes, so of which you might hear in today's program. 

But before we trun our attention to the escalating violence in the Occupied Territories, first a quick update on the 2024 Presidential elections. 

U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
POLL IGNORES EMERGING PARTIES, STILL POINTS TO POWER OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

This chart highlighted on the Kim Iverson Show last week, reflects data from an Echelon Insights poll. Its sample size is barely more than a thousand, and comes from across the nation. Of course the popular vote does not impact the outcome, at least not until we can abolish the Electoral College, a goal long proclaimed by the Green Party platform.

This past Monday, RFKJr spoke in Philly, where he announced an independent bid for the white house. Last week MediaITE reported that the RFKJr campaign was preparing an ad campaign attacking the DNC, and Iverson in this program reported a rumor that Kennedy had met with the chairman of the US Libertarian Party.

This Echelon Insights data still reports 10-11% of the vote undecided, on either a two-way or three-way race, and neither scenario contemplates the likelihood of a Green or Libertarian Party candidate on the ballot in most states.

Although wikipedia reports 13 candidates seeking the GP nomination, one, Emanuel Pastreich withdrew from the race the previous weekend. And Cornel West withdrew last weekend. Only two other candidates have reached out to the Georgia party so far, only six have filed with the FEC

KENNEDY DEMEXIT

Kennedy has proven pretty hard headed on his partisan alignment. But perhaps he has learned the lessons from the 2016 Sanders campaign, or perhaps he's ready now to perform his role as a sheepdog for Biden's re-election bid. In his speech this past Monday, he did take the DemExit plunge. We shall see how he plays it.

Before he kissed the AIPAC ring, Kennedy might have given West a run as a candidate for the GP nomination. But that is a lot to walk back for those of us working to build a party opposed to the occupation.

WEST GREENEXIT

And at any rate, Dr. Cornel West performed his own GreenExit ahead of Kennedy's Philly speech, and his campaign issued a statement, reported by Politico, "As Dr. West’s campaign for president grows, he believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics". We have heard a couple of theories about what those 'internal party dynamics' might be, and will likely explore those in further depth in future programs.

ZIONIST OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE RAMPS UP VIOLENCE

HAMMAS RETALIATION TO ZIONIST OCCUPATION USED TO JUSTIFY RETALIATION KILLING THOUSANDS IN GAZA

I was a bit late to this conversation. I spent last weekend at the National Reparations Convention hosted at Georgia State University. More on that soon.

I was hearing rumors across the weekend of a war declaration by Israel. I only started catching up on the news for myself Monday morning.

There are many narratives worthy of being debunked supporting the genocide of Palestinians which are being hawked by the corporate media. It is our role as people committed to justice in general, as Greens specifically to speak up and speak out against these war crimes endemic in our nation's support of the Zionist occupation.

RIGHT TO RESIST OCCUPATION

I got push back from allies for acknowledging that an occupied people have a UN recognized right to resist their oppression, including through armed struggle. Nonetheless, I assert that it is not for us, writing safely from our keyboards an ocean away to sit in judgement of those who resist an illegal and immoral occupation funded with our tax dollars nor of the tactics they use to remove our collective boot from their neck.

And I challenge anyone to hold fast to a conception of non-violence which eschews self-defense were the roles reversed.

One does not need a stand-your-ground statute, under the castle doctrine, recognized in one form or another in all but four states in this nation, to appreciate that self-defense is a fundamental right.

PALESTINIANS AND THE RIGHT TO RESIST

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East seem to understand. Their fact sheet #236 cites the Geneva Convention, as well as two UN resolutions which speak directly to this question.

They also point out the hypocracy on the Canadian Government which "recognizes the Palestinian right to 'self-determination and supports the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state,' (while) consistently condemn(ing) Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, both violent and non-violent. " Sounds rather like the rhetoric we hear in this nation.

REVOLUTIONARY BLACK NETWORK

As we observed Indigenous Peoples Day in the United States, our U.S. Congress was foaming at the mouth in support of the Zionist Occupation's retaliation against the indigenous of Palestine who resist their own occupation in defense of their lands, lives, dignity and sovereignty.

Monday's episode of Revolutionary Blackout spent time recounting the history of the occupation and examining the often vulgar statements of politicians.

KIM IVERSON -- WHO STANDS WITH ISRAEL?

Kim Iverson did a similar roundup. Hers focused on the political statements by the Presidential hopefuls.

Her reading on Cornel West's statement was more forgiving than that of Revolutionary Black Network's assessment that he was 'both side'-ing the situation.

RBN's focus was more focused on calling out the Progressive Except for Palestine crowd, who align more closely with U.S. imperialism than with peace in Palestine or justice for Palestinians. The early parts of the RBN show featured guests who reviewed the history of Zionist provocation to the Hamas attacks of this past weekend.

HASBARA PROPAGANDA DEBUNKED

The first casualty of war is the truth.

Even so, by Monday, actual journalists were already debunking the hasbara propaganda emanating from Tel Aviv, forcing Biden and others to walk back false claims of Hamas atrocities.

The first to fall was the beheaded baby trope, although it continues to make the rounds despite the lack of evidence. Greyzone identified David Ben Zion, whom they described as "an Israeli soldier & extremist settler leader who incited violent riots by calling to 'wipe out' Palestinians earlier this year".

BEWARE WOLF BLITZER IN THE FOG OF WAR

The story of a reported rape amidst the bodies at a concert has failed to be supported by any evidence.

Reports of mass shootings at that concert are being contradicted by eye witness accounts.

Hiram Johnson, an early 20th Century U.S. Senator from California told us that "The first casualty of war is the truth". We have seen plenty of ranting among allies who have fallen for the propaganda coming out of the Zionist occupation.

This short video debunks three tropes used this week: (1) beheaded babies, (2) young women being raped, (3) a mass murder at a concert. Perhaps these tropes are true; but no one has produced any evidence that they are. And there has been evidence to the contrary. Beware Wolf Blitzer in the fog of war.

VIDEO: Three tropes of zionist atrocity propaganda debunked

KUWAITI INCUBATORS

This week is the anniversary of the Congressional testimony that Kuwaiti infants had been ripped from incubators and left to die on the cold floor. These lies were intended to prepare us for an illegal and immoral invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq in 1991. A PR firm rehearsed testimony complete with tears of Nayirah, the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States. Its all documented in John MacArthur's book, Second Front -- Censorship and Propaganada in the 1991 Gulf War.

THE WEST'S HYPOCRISY TOWARDS GAZA'S BREAKOUT IS STOMACH-TURNING

Jonathan Cook last Sunday contributed a piece to the Mid East Eye, called: The West's hypocrisy towards Gaza's breakout is stomach-turning.

I will share a couple of paragraphs here:

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas, which nominally runs the open-air prison of Gaza, of starting 'a cruel and evil war'. But the truth is that the Palestinians have 'started' nothing. They have managed, after so much struggle, to find a way to hurt their tormentor."

"Inevitably for the Palestinians, as Netanyahu also observed, 'the price will be heavy' - especially for civilians. Israel will inflict on the prisoners the severest punishment for their impudence."

"Watch how little sympathy and concern there will be from the West for the many Palestinian men, women and children who are killed once again by Israel. Their immense suffering will be obscured, and justified, by the term 'Israeli retaliation'."

That was just a few of Mr. Cook's words. As usual, you can read the rest at the link below.

Apparently, the Zionist state is entitled to "retaliation" in the context of their "right to defend themselves", while a reciprocal right is denied to the Palestinians whom they occupy. There will never be peace in Palestine without an end to its apartheid occupation.

The Green Party platform has for more than a decade supported the call by Palestinians to one democratic state in which all of its citizens enjoy the equal protection of the law.

Meanwhile sycophants in our nation's political establishment support Netanyahu's 'final solution' of genocide. But that will provide no peace, as the ghosts of its crime victims would forever haunt the soul of whatever illegitimate nation would survive such a conflagration.

ZIONIST ACTIVISTS EXPLICITLY CALLED FOR ARAB / PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE

For some sense of context, for those who doubt the blood lust directed at an occupied Palestine. These interviews took place on the streets of New York, but I have previously seen similar sentiments expressed by man-in-the-street interviews shot in Tel Aviv, long before last week's Hamas Offensive. As Greyzone reported, "Zionist activists spoke with me and explicitly called for Arab / Palestinian genocide."

VIDEO: interviews at NYC rally

'HOSTAGES?' HOW THE U.S. MEDIA IS DISTORTING THE NEWS FROM PALESTINE

Mondoweiss published an analysis of the distortions in the U.S. Media "'Hostages?' How the U.S. media is distorting the news from Palestine"

"The mainstream also failed to actually report Hamas’s stated reasons for launching the attack.
By contrast, Haaretz, the Israeli daily, did quote Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau. Haniyeh charged Israel with damaging the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. He also accused Israel of continuing to ethnically cleanse the occupied West Bank: 'We also warned them against continuing the policy of demographic change in the West Bank, and the acceleration of the settlement project, but they continue the raids on the cities and refugee camps. . .' And Haniyeh concluded:

'Israel could have silenced us by giving us crumbs, but the government turned its back on any possibility of a prisoner exchange deal, and continued the siege of the {Gaza} Strip.'"

"Haaretz, by contrast, didn’t mince words. One after another, reporters and columnists blistered Netanyahu’s coalition, pointing out that the far-right government continued to push the 'settlement' campaign in the West Bank and stood by as the 'settlers' carried out pogroms against Palestinians. Then, having provoked increased Palestinian resistance, Netanyahu had to move army units to the occupied territory, leaving the southern border with Gaza relatively unprotected."

"Haaretz commentators, instead of blindly 'standing with Israel,' didn’t hesitate to blast their own government."

The main point I took from this piece is suggested by its title, that accusations of hostage taking might more accurately be framed as the capture of prisoners of war. In a society which expects universal military service and imprisons its refuseniks who decline to participate in the occupation of their Palestinian neighbors, it safe to assume that those concert goers, whether in uniform or civilian clothes were likely members of the Israeli military, ergo combatants and as legitimate a target as can be found in a military conflict.

Read it for yourself at the link below.

Its also worth noting that except for his immunity as the Prime Minister, Netanyahu would likely be facing prison right now for corruption charges. His ignoring intelligence of an impending Hamas operation provided him just the false flag operation necessary to justify his escalation of the siege on Gaza, and shores up support for Knesset confidence in his role as PM.

This theory is no less cynical than Clinton having started a war in Yugoslavia to bounce the blue dress off the front pages.

PALESTINIANS SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF VIOLENCE ISRAEL TAUGHT THEM

Next I want to share an excerpt from Chris Hedges, who won his pulitzer for his war zone reporting. Mr. Hedges writes:

"Prime Minister Netanyahu warned Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday to 'leave now,' because Israel is going to 'turn all Hamas hiding places into rubble.'"

"But where are Palestinians in Gaza supposed to go? Israel and Egypt blockade the land borders. There is no exit by air or sea, which are controlled by Israel."

"The collective retribution against innocents is a familiar tactic employed by colonial rulers.

We used it against Native Americans and later in the Philippines and Vietnam. The Germans used it against the Herero and Namaqua in Namibia. The British in Kenya and Malaya.

The Nazis used it in the areas they occupied in the Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe. Israel follows the same playbook. Death for death. Atrocity for atrocity. But it is always the occupier who initiates this macabre dance and trades piles of corpses for higher piles of corpses."

"This is not to defend the war crimes by either side. It is not to rejoice in the attacks. I have seen enough violence in the Israeli occupied territories, where I covered the conflict for seven years, to loathe violence. But this is the familiar denouement to all settler-colonial projects. Regimes implanted and maintained by violence engender violence.

The Haitian war of liberation. The Mau Mau in Kenya. The African National Congress in South Africa. These uprisings do not always succeed, but they follow familiar patterns. The Palestinians, like all colonized people, have a right to armed resistance under international law."

"Israel never had any interest in an equitable settlement with the Palestinians.  It built an apartheid state and has steadily absorbed larger and larger tracts of Palestinian land in a slow motion campaign of ethnic cleansing. It turned Gaza in 2007 into the world’s largest open air prison."

RUSSIA RECITES EXISTING INTERNATIONAL LAW

In this piece from the Jimmy Dore show, Russia recites existing international law. A growing number of Palestinians now reject the two-state resolution to the conflict embraced by this 1967-border formulation, arguing that the progression of Zionist settlements in Palestine now leaves such an approach untenable. Think about the Canadian government's formulation cited earlier for a 'territorially contiguous Palestinian state' as that famous second states. Any 'contiguous territory' has long since been divided by settlements.

The Green Party platform supports a one-state resolution where all citizens enjoy the equal protection of the law. But honestly, this is not a choice to be made by those of us observing from the other side of an ocean.

Like the position of Hamas cited in this program, if the Palestinian people would be willing to live with this framework, our own nation certainly should get out of the way and support it. But the real question here is: will the occupation accede to such a plan?

As long as they are bolstered by $3.3 billion a year in U.S. tax dollars and are urged on to genocidal actions by the AIPAC-owned politicians of this nation, there remains small chance of that.

14 YO RAPPER MC ABDUL

Out of the mouths of babes. But of course young people living under occupation have been robbed of their childhood. A quick look at the location in the background in which this fourteen year old young man has set his video, considering the subject matter of his lyrics, makes it plain that he never had a chance at a real childhood, much less a happy one.

VIDEO: 14 yo rapper MC Abdul

THE GENDER CRITICAL BEAT

GREEN PARTY OF ENGLAND AND WALES SUPPRESSES FINDINGS OF ITS OWN DEI STUDY

On to some of the latest developments related to the Lobby for Gender Ideology.

The Green Party of England and Wales commissioned a study of its own operations by Diverse Matters, presumably to root out rampant 'transphobia' in its ranks.

Its consultants concluded in part that it is "absolutely imperative that individuals were allowed freedom of thought and expression in the context of upholding human rights and responsibilities".

Presumably that would include freedom to think things 'worthy of protection in a free society', as established by the Forstater appeal. In this report from the Green Light blog, it states:

"The most notorious example has to be the ruthless suspension, followed by the expulsion of elected co-chair of Green Party Women Emma Bateman in February 2022 only two months into her democratic mandate because of an alleged transphobic speech."

"Since the publication of the report in May 2022, members of the Green Party Women Committee have conducted their own survey about bullying, harassment and complaints due to allegations of transphobia. A single email with a brief survey sent to members of GPW resulted in 30 testimonies of specific gross misconduct and unacceptable behaviour towards members who believe that sex is biological."

"Nothwithsanding the fact that Diverse Matters is a proud Stonewall’s Trans Inclusive employer, it is hard to believe that their team of auditors would have had such a blind spot as to miss evidence of so many formal complaints submitted with allegations of transphobia clearly aiming to sanction members who believe that sex is biological."

"They may possibly have found the conflict around sex and gender so toxic and explosive that they quietly opted to bury such complaints under ‘general bias’."

Check the links below to read the full report.

A Feminist Doctor on Gender Identity Policies, Institutional Capture and Medicine

Filia is an international Women's Liberation organization which held a conference last week in the UK.

In late March 2021, they used their website to publish an interview with a feminist medical practitioner, who hosts her own website under the pseudonym of "la scapigliata, which means 'head of a woman', and as she explains it, 'to symbolise my free thoughts, spoken with no fear of death and rape threats, cyber stalking and other types of intimidation men are engaging in to silence women.'

This two-and-a-half year old article is entitled: "A Feminist Doctor on Gender Identity Policies, Institutional Capture and Medicine". I wish to share a few paragraphs from this interview with you today.

She is asked: "[Q]. To what extent do you believe most doctors know what is going on?"

Scapigliata responds: "[A]. I think doctors are increasingly aware of what is happening but they are under huge pressure due to the current public health crisis, the stressful nature of the job as well as chronic understaffing and underfunding.

Our institutions have implemented policies that would see you accused of bigotry and question your fitness to practice if you stated, quite correctly, that males aren't women. Most doctors' livelihood depends on not falling foul of these frameworks."

"I receive confidential messages from colleagues and medical students all the time They tell me they are afraid of being falsely accused of transphobia and face discrimination and bullying in their place of work/study if they openly question these policies. My feeling is that, the vast majority of healthcare professionals are concerned with the lack of evidence. They can see the many ways in which replacing sex with gender identity compromises patient healthcare and safety. However, the culture of dismissal and bullying has quashed all dissent, and this is being used by transactivists to claim that the medical profession fully endorses biology-denialism."

She is asked: "[Q]. Why do you think some respected medical organisations have been vulnerable to these influences?"

She responds: "[A]. Institutional capture was carried out quite systematically, using various tactics outlined in Denton's report titled "Only Adults?  Good Practices in Legal Gender Recognition For Youth", such as avoiding debate, tying gender identity centering proposals to less controversial policy suggestions (such as reforms to support LGB rights) and using youthful voices to portray these changes as “progressive.

”This has worked equally well at the GMC, British Medical Association (BMA), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Royal Colleges as well as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), prison service and women's aid sector."

"Clawing back from this will be difficult, because the gender identity lobby has had free reign for over a decade and now our institutions are riddled with policies made "in advance of the law". This makes lawful single-sex provisions all but impossible to enforce. Furthermore, free speech is under threat with increasingly Orwellian "hate crime" legislation and policing. However, with several Judicial Reviews under way, that seek to examine the lawfulness of these policies and their effect on individual service users, as well as growing public opposition, I am hopeful."

This is only a brief excerpt from a longer interview. You are urged to use the links below to read the full piece for yourself.

EMERGENCE OF A CLUSTER B SOCIETY

This next piece is from Christopher Rufo and the Manhattan Institute. At one point in his script he lays responsibility at the feet of a feminized managerial class and HR departments. Otherwise he raises many interesting points tying together some very disturbing trends in our culture.

CHRIS RUFO
"You’re not imagining that the world has gone mad."

CHRIS RUFO
"Healthy debate has been replaced by activist hysterics. Speech is declared violence, while violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as regressive, while men in skirts and heels are celebrated in the public square."

"It’s easy to laugh at these outbursts as the ravings of a small but vocal minority, but the compromised health of our body politic is not a trivial concern. A strange, new pattern of psychological dysfunction has infiltrated our most prestigious institutions, our corporate bureaucracies, and the highest offices in the land."

"In short, we’re sick. Our society is out of balance. We’ve been consumed by a cluster of disorder that appeals to our worst instincts and deranges our most important social functions."

"We need to recover our sanity. But to do so, we must first know exactly what we’re dealing with: the emergence of a Cluster B Society."

'I DON'T BELIEVE IN PROGRESS': MARY HARRINGTON ON HOW MODERN FEMINISM HAS HARMED WOMEN | SPECTATORTV

In this next interview, Mary Harrington, an editor at Unherd and author of "Feminism Against Progress" shares a deeply thought through examination of issues raised by the historical development of feminist thought.

She describes the first wave as the feminism of nurturing, the second wave as the feminism of freedom and examines her own history of participation in the 'woke' feminism of her youth and the regressive directions in which the so-called 'third wave' has taken our culture.

Personally I view the so-called third wave as indicative of a backlash against the gains of the feminism of our foremothers, where the pornography industry and queer theory have captured the language of feminism to reverse the gains fought for and won by those who left a legacy for us to defend.

I look forward to reading Ms. Harrington's book, and learning more of the history she tells us has been memory-holed by successive waves of a movement which inspires the work of gender critical feminists.

NATIONAL REPARATIONS CONVENTION
BUILDING UNITY AMONG ADVOCATES FOR REPARATIONS

Finally, here is the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the National Reparations Convention, hosted this past weekend at Georgia State University, all sixteen hours of it. Except for the Hamas counter-offensive, I would likely have spent much of this week's program discussing the implications and strategy of this important unity effort. Stay tuned to future episodes of Breaking the Overton Window to hear more.